The Behaviour of Child Pedestrians at Darwin Primary School

Summary

The purpose of the research was to examine the effect that the education program Out and About had on the behaviour of child pedestrians as they travelled to and from Darwin primary schools. The study primarily focussed on children's level of compliance to road crossing behavioural elements. Pre and post education observation sessions were conducted at 16 schools, resulting in 3198 subject observations. It was found that all subjects had a low compliance rate to three critical road crossing behavioural elements: stopping at kerbside; observing for traffic prior to crossing the road; and monitoring traffic while crossing the road. Emanating from the study are 14 recommendations.